“The 'Brotherkillers' speak of the fratricidal conflict in a village during the Greek Civil War in the late 1940s. Many of the villagers, including Captain Drakos, the son of the parish priest, Father Giannaros, took to the mountains and joined the communist rebels. It is Holy Week, and with murder, death, and daily destruction, Father Giannaros feels that he carries the sins of the world on his shoulders.” (From the French edition Nikos Kazantzaki, "Les freres enemis", Plon, Paris 1978.)
The 2009 edition of "Brotherkillers" contains, for the first time, an Afterword (by the Publisher-Editor Dr. Patrokles Stavrou), with factual comments and historical information about the dramatic events that inspired the work, which transcends its local data and acquires universal symbols of painful and destructive human passions.
“A rough village, the color of ash, dark houses under the relentless sun of the Mediterranean islands, inhabitants burned by misery and passions. Today, the dominant passion is hatred. A deadly political hatred that pits brother against brother. And in front of this storm of lawlessness stands an elderly man, desperate, because his voice is 'the voice of one crying in the wilderness.' For Father Giannaros, this wave of horror can only signify the very incompetence of his priesthood: the devil governs the world. Either the devil or Lenin.
For the teacher, who is stirred with enthusiasm by new ideas, the struggle has meaning. Seriously ill, almost on the verge of death, he clings to his soul with all his might because he wants to catch a glimpse of the arrival of Freedom. “This dying novel by Kazantzakis is, among all his works, the closest to our world, which is torn apart by fratricidal battles.” (From the French edition Nikos Kazantzaki, "Les freres enemis", Plon, Paris 1978)
